Tendencies and Spatial Pattern of Urban Growth in the Catchment Area of Hungarian Middle Cities between 1990-2018

Highlighted challenges of landscape management and urban policy are land use and urban sprawl management (EEA 2016, EEA 2007). Important concerns occurred from the aspect of landscape architecture, like sustainability, disproportional land take, loss of natural habitats, as well as traditional land use (Artmann et al. 2019; Antrop 2004). Nevertheless, the concept of urban sprawl is commonly used, several qualitative and quantitative definitions exist (some examples: Steurer and Bayr 2020; Luc-Normand 2020; Szirmai 2011; Ewing 2008; Galster et al. 2001) it is hard to define precisely (Tsai 2005). Egidi et al. (2020: 4) highlights “sprawl still remains a mixed morphological and functional issue, e.g., in terms of housing, land-use, fragmentation, and confusion of landscape characters” referring to Colantoni et al. (2015) and Di Feliciantonio and Salvati (2014). The analyses of different spatial patterns or morphological distribution of urban sprawl is a core topic of urban planning (Angel et al. 2010; Schneider and Woodcock 2008; Schwarz, 2010; Galster et al. 2001). Compact city, as an objective for urban planning is on the political agenda, to foster organic growth of urban areas and fill the gaps within the urban tissue (CEC 1990, 1996; Kasanko et al. 2005; Batty et al. 2003). In the literature, the most influenced territories are in focus: the central city and its settlement network (Szirmai 2011) and also the periphery, edge, peri